THE CHARM OF GARDENS 



the sun-dial, and think within myself, ' Is the sun-dial 

 glad, I wonder, that it can tell the time again ? ' " 



Even as I remembered those words I looked up and 

 noticed a sun-dial on the wall of the church just over my 

 head, and, curiously enough, just that peace that those 

 words give to me seemed to come to me from the sight of 

 the sun-dial, and the repose of the scene before me. 



It is good, I think, to meditate on these things, and all 

 who garden, who are, as it were, in touch with the soil, 

 must sometimes let their thoughts linger over the other 

 gardens where the dead are, and where Spring comes as 

 blithely as in any other spot. 



Although the gardens that are what are called " show- 

 places," tended and nursed by a staff of men, do not 

 bring one into such close contact with earth as earth, still 

 in the greater garden is a peace no other place knows but 

 the graveyard. This is no morbid thought, nor over 

 introspective, but, I think, makes me feel more sanely 

 and not so fearfully of death. In the same way do the 

 poor keep their grave clothes ready and neat in a drawer, 

 with pennies sewn up in linen to put over their tired eyes, 

 and everything decent for the putting away of their 

 bodies. So does the wood of trees enclose them, and 

 good and polished wood in the shape of coffin-stools is 

 there to bear them up. And I have heard many talk of 

 how they wished to lie facing the porch of the church ; 

 and others who wished they might be near by the gate so 

 that folks-passing in and out might remember them. 



This may seem a subject not quite fitted to a book 

 which is to tell of the Charm of Gardens, and yet I am 

 sure lovers of gardens will know just what I mean. To 

 think of and know of the peace and beauty of certain 

 graveyards is to gain consolation and quietude such as 

 the knowledge and thought of all beauty gives. What a 

 wonderful thing it is that we can paint the earth with 



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